Arthur Kopit
| Arthur Kopit | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Arthur Lee Kopit May 10, 1937 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Playwright |
| Years active | 1962–present |
Arthur Lee Kopit (born May 10, 1937) is an American playwright. He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist (Indians and Wings) and a three-time Tony Award nominee: Best Play, Indians, 1970; Best Play, Wings, 1979; and Best Book of a Musical, for Nine, 1982. He won the Vernon Rice Award (now known as the Drama Desk Award) in 1962 for his play Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad and was nominated for another Drama Desk Award in 1979 for his play Wings.[1]
Nine returned to Broadway in 2003 with Antonio Banderas as Guido and won two Tony Awards, including best revival; in 2009 Rob Marshall directed the film Nine based on Kopit's script, the principal cast consisting of Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Sophia Loren, Kate Hudson, and Fergie (singer).[2]
Kopit attended Lawrence High School in Lawrence, Nassau County, New York.[3]
Kopit attended Harvard University. His first plays were staged while he was still an undergraduate at Harvard University. Later, Kopit taught at Wesleyan University, Yale University, and the City College of New York.[4] In 2005, Kopit donated his papers to the Fales Library at NYU.
Works
- Chamber Music (1965) -- published in the collection Chamber Music and Other Plays including Chamber music, The questioning of Nick, Sing to me through open windows, The hero, The conquest of Everest, The day the whores came out to play tennis
- Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad (1963)
- Indians (1969), simultaneously a review of America's treatment of Native Americans and a critique of the Vietnam War; inspired the 1976 film by Robert Altman, Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson.
- Wings (1978), a more somber story of a stroke victim's recovery
- Nine (1982), an adaptation of Federico Fellini's film 8½
- Good Help is Hard to Find (1982)
- End of the World with Symposium to Follow (1984), a mordant investigation of the arms race and nuclear destruction.
- Road to Nirvana[5] (1991)
- Success (published in Plays in One Act, Ecco Press, 1991)
- Phantom (1992), a musical version of The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux. Music and Lyrics by Maury Yeston.[6]
- Y2K (2000)--Subsequently published under the title BecauseHeCan
References
- ↑ http://www.ibdb.com/awardperson.asp?id=4304 Awards for Arthur Kopit, Internet Broadway Database
- ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0875034/
- ↑ Kelly, Kevin. "THE CURIOUS CAREER OF ARTHUR KOPIT", The Boston Globe, February 22, 1987. Accessed July 10, 2008.
- ↑ http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/fales/kopit.html
- ↑ "MISSING ARTHUR MILLER". May 28, 2005. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
- ↑ "Phantom (Yeston/Kopit)". Retrieved August 28, 2014.
External links
- The Fales Library guide to the Arthur Kopit Papers
- Arthur Kopit at the Internet Movie Database
- Arthur Kopit at the Internet Broadway Database
- The Samuel French Arthur Kopit page
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